With increased travel by car, bus, and/or plane, many people are forced to sit upright for extended periods of time. Trying to sleep or rest in such a position can be very uncomfortable and difficult as there is no support for the head and, unless secured in place, a person's upper body will tend to slide sideways off the seat or into a neighboring passenger. To prevent this, early travel pillows had a substantially horseshoe or semicircular shape to provide support and prevent the head from falling to the side and placing significant strain on the neck. While these neck pillows were somewhat effective in limiting neck strain, they did nothing to prevent the torso from sliding sideways.
To address this issue, travel pillows were developed that could be strapped to the headrest or headrest supports of the seat, preventing the pillow from sliding sideways. These travel pillows, however, have significant drawbacks. In some cases, these securing mechanisms were insufficient to prevent movement or rotation of the travel pillow, preventing it from functioning correctly. In order to prevent this, some of these travel pillow securing systems utilized numerous straps to hold the travel pillow in place. These systems, however, made it very difficult to move the travel pillow from one seat to another or from one vehicle to another.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is a versatile travel pillow that provides support to the user's head, neck, and shoulders and prevents the user from sliding sideways with respect to the seat, but can be quickly and easily secured to the headrest of a seat or chair or moved from one vehicle seat to another.